1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data transfer and propagation and more particularly to data transfer among pervasive computing devices and host computing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal computers no longer are the most common vehicle through which users connect to data communications networks like the Internet. Now that computing can be viewed as being truly everywhere, computer scientists and information technologists have begun to rethink those services that can be provided to meet the needs of mobile computing users. In consequence, the study of pervasive computing has resulted in substantial innovation in the field of network connectivity. “Pervasive computing” has been defined as referring to any non-constrained computing device not physically tethered to a data communications network. Thus, pervasive computing devices refer not only to computers wirelessly linked to networks, but also to handheld computing devices, wearable systems, embedded computing systems and the like.
Pervasive devices enjoy much of the functionality of their larger cousins—the desktop computer. Part of this functionality includes the ability to acquire and store data. While much of the data which can be acquired and stored in a pervasive device is small in size and can be accommodated by the limited storage for the pervasive device, other data, such as acquired digital photographs, can be large in size and the rampant accumulation of large data can quickly overwhelm the resources of the pervasive device. To address the storage of large data, pervasive devices include functionality for transferring acquired and stored data to fatter clients. This process often is referred to as synchronization as the intent is not so much to transfer data from one device to another as it is to maintain equal copies of the data both on the pervasive device and the fat client.
More specifically, data synchronization refers to the harmonization of data between two data sources such that the data contained in each data source can be reconciled notwithstanding changes to the data applied in either or both of the data sources. Modem pervasive devices provide for a synchronization process through a direct cable link, a modem link, or a network link to a host computing device. Wireless pervasive devices further can accommodate synchronization over infrared or radio frequency links. Notwithstanding, data synchronization does not readily provide the capability of merely transferring a file so as to free storage space in the pervasive device. To achieve a mere file transfer, often an end user must acquire separate file management software.
Transferring data files from a pervasive device to a fat host can be a manual, labor intensive process. First, a willing fat host communicatively coupled to the pervasive device must be configured to receive the transferred file. Secondly, the file first must be stored in the pervasive device, and only subsequently, can the stored file be selected for transfer to the fat host. Transferring files to a peer pervasive device can be even more difficult. In the latter circumstance, a communicative link must be established as between the two devices (usually through a line-of-sight technology such as infrared), and only subsequently can the file be transferred. Effectuating a transfer of a single file to multiple, different peer pervasive devices and fat client hosts can only compound the manually intensive process. Acquiring data in a pervasive device further can be limiting in that often the acquisition of a large volume of data, such as a digital photograph, first must be stored in the pervasive device before synchronizing that data with a fat client. The nature of data storage resources in the pervasive device, however, can inhibit the acquisition of large volumes of data due to these limitations.